In appreciation of his extensive theoretical, data-analytical and application-related research, as author of a large number of scientific articles and co-editor of several books on the physics of the heliosphere, heating of the solar corona, plasma physics of the solar wind and astrophysical plasmas, as co-editor of geophysical journals, especially of the well-known online journal Living Reviews in Solar Physics,[1] as member of a variety of scientific committees and reviewer of leading scientific journals, as lecturer and associate professor at the University of Göttingen and as a personal supervisor of a large number of doctoral students and young scientists, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna awarded him in the year 2018 the Hannes Alfvén Medal.

"The Hannes Alfvén Medal goes to Eckart Marsch for his fundamental contributions to our understanding of the kinetic processes and plasma turbulence in the heliosphere, as well as to the work that has made Helios a successful mission and initiated the Solar Orbiter."

After attending high school in Husum and serving in the German army in Nordfriesland (district), Eckart Marsch, born in Friedrichstadt (Schleswig-Holstein) in 1968, studied physics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Technische Universität Berlin, and after his undergraduate degree at the University of Kiel.

The goal of the theoretician Eckart Marsch was always to reconcile theoretical and analytical knowledge with the observational data obtained by solar and space probes, and also to gain a global view of the complex physical processes involved.

Main goals of his work were to gain knowledge about the formation, heating and acceleration of the solar wind in the inner heliosphere, as well as to analyse plasma turbulence in the context of magnetohydrodynamics and with the help of kinetic theories.

Through statistical analysis, in particular of the data obtained from the HELIOS spacecraft, he studied in his research the properties of the three-dimensional flow structures of the solar wind and discovered special features of the anisotropic, radial development of the velocity distribution functions of protons and alpha particles.

For the first time, he carried out MHD model calculations and data analysis, employing profitably Elsasser variables, and analyzed the multifractal nature of fluctuations and their dissipation in turbulent energy cascades.